Not Quite What I Was Planning Six Word Memoirs By Writers Famous And Obscure

Deceptively simple and surprisingly addictive, Not Quite What I Was Planning is a thousand glimpses of humanity—six words at a time. One Life. Six Words. What's Yours? When Hemingway famously wrote, "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn," he proved that an entire story can be told using a half dozen words. When the online storytelling magazine SMITH asked readers to submit six-word memoirs, they proved a whole, real life can be told this way too. The results are fascinating, hilarious, shocking, and moving. From small sagas of bittersweet romance ("Found true love, married someone else") to proud achievements and stinging regrets ("After Harvard, had baby with crackhead"), these terse true tales relate the diversity of human experience in tasty bite-sized pieces. From authors Jonathan Lethem and Richard Ford to comedians Stephen Colbert and Amy Sedaris, to ordinary folks around the world, everyone has a six-word story to tell.

Deceptively simple and surprisingly addictive, Not Quite What I Was Planning is a thousand glimpses of humanity—six words at a time. When Ernest Hemingway famously wrote, "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn," he proved that an entire story can be told using a half-dozen words. When the online storytelling magazine SMITH asked readers to submit six-word memoirs, they proved a whole, real life can be told this way, too. The results are fascinating, hilarious, shocking, and moving. From small sagas of bittersweet romance ("Found true love, married someone else") to proud achievements and stinging regrets ("After Harvard, had baby with crackhead"), these terse true tales relate the diversity of human experience in tasty bite-size pieces. The original edition of Not Quite What I Was Planning spent six weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and thanks to massive media attention—from NPR to the The New Yorker—the six-word memoir concept spread to classrooms, dinner tables, churches, synagogues, and tens of thousands of blogs. This deluxe edition has been revised and expanded to include more than sixty never-before-seen memoirs. From authors Elizabeth Gilbert, Richard Ford, and Joyce Carol Oates to celebrities Stephen Colbert, Mario Batali, and Joan Rivers to ordinary folks around the world, everyone has a six-word story to tell.

A collection of six-word memoirs, contributed by both famous and obscure writers, records the human experience in works that are by turn whimsical, poignant, and bizarre, by such authors as Joyce Carol Oates and Joan Rivers.

From the creators of Six-Word Memoirs comes The Moment, a collection of personal stories from writers both famous and obscure revealing how a single instant changed their lives forever. An innocuous decision, an unforeseen accident, a chance conversation, a tag sale, a terrorist strike, a tweet . . . sometimes all it takes is a single moment to redirect the course of an entire life. In the tradition of Smith magazine’s Not Quite What I Was Planning and the sensational Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak—and in the spirit of StoryCorps, the Moth, and This American Life—The Moment unveils everyday people’s inner lives in narratives of all shapes and sizes, with stories from six to 1,000 words, photographs, comics, illustrations, handwritten letters, and more. It’s enough to change your life forever.

From the editors of the international phenomenon and New York Times bestseller Not Quite What I Was Planning comes a collection of six-word memoirs created by and for teens. From cancer to creativity, prom dates to promiscuity, and breaking hearts to breaking laws, the memoirs in this collection reveal that often the youngest writers have the most fascinating stories to tell. One life. Six words. What's yours?

In 2006 Larry Smith, the creator of SMITH Magazine, challenged readers to tell their story in just six words. Modeled after a famous quote by Ernest Hemingway, Smith showed the world that short-form story-telling could be powerful. Since the publication of the first book in his bestselling series, Not Quite What I Was Planning, people all over the world have shared their stories in print, online, in the classroom, and with their friends and families. Bolstered by the success of the memoir form, Larry Smith is back again with a poignant collection of universal wisdom, life lessons, and caution thrown to the wind that will put a smile on your face six words at a time. With contributions from celebrities like Molly Ringwald, "post-adolescent? Then stop blaming your parents;" Lemony Snicket, "never, ever refuse a breath mint;" and Gary Shteyngart, "hands where I can see 'em," as well as everyday people who've learned a thing or two about a thing or two during their time on the planet, readers will pulled into the sometimes hilarious, often serious, ocassionally reflective experience of the book. Smith's currated advice book is the straight-shooting, truth-telling, next door neighbor everybody wishes they had access to growing up. Now they do! Here's six more life-changing words of advice for you: Read this; you won't regret it.

“Fascinating….Provocative.” —New York Times “Answering this question reveals a great deal about your personality, priorities and interests.” —The Guardian (UK) If your house were on fire, what would you take? Foster Huntington has collected answers to this telling question from thousands of responders all over the world to get to the heart of what it is that people truly value. The result is The Burning House, featuring the best of Huntington’s popular website, TheBurningHouse.com along with a wealth of all-new material. Fascinating and remarkably revealing, The Burning House provides a captivating keyhole into people’s lives, feelings, and innermost thoughts that will especially appeal to the many fans of PostSecret, Not Quite What I Was Planning, Found, and Awkward Family Photos. Illustrated with sometimes moving, often unusual photographs of people’s most prized possessions, The Burning House ingeniously celebrates the differences between human beings around the globe—and the surprising similarities that unite us all.

I'm Perfect, You're Doomed is the story of Kyria Abrahams's coming-of-age as a Jehovah's Witness -- a doorbell-ringing "Pioneer of the Lord." Her childhood was haunted by the knowledge that her neighbors and schoolmates were doomed to die in an imminent fiery apocalypse; that Smurfs were evil; that just about anything you could buy at a yard sale was infested by demons; and that Ouija boards -- even if they were manufactured by Parker Brothers -- were portals to hell. Never mind how popular you are when you hand out the Watchtower instead of candy at Halloween. When Abrahams turned eighteen, things got even stranger. That's when she found herself married to a man she didn't love, with adultery her only way out. "Disfellowshipped" and exiled from the only world she'd ever known, Abrahams realized that the only people who could save her were the very sinners she had prayed would be smitten by God's wrath. Raucously funny, deeply unsettling, and written with scorching wit and deep compassion, I'm Perfect, You're Doomed explores the ironic absurdity of growing up believing that nothing matters because everything's about to be destroyed.